Menu

Support Black Economics

America’s Crossroads, Dreams Deferred

Trueson Daughtery created the illustration for the Black Wall St. Times “America Ripped Apart.” Depending on how you look at it: The icon can represent the Twin Towers on 9/11 or America being ripped apart by hate #D.A.C.A.

We as an organization stand with the “Dreamers” and support D.A.C.A. The icon expresses families being torn apart by the current Administration’s actions. The Black Wall St. Times stand with our Latino neighbors and our Afro-Latino brothers and sisters who have been affected or will be by President Donald Trumps unpatriotic actions.

OPINION | By Nehemiah D. Frank

TULSA, Okla. — America is at a troubling crossroads. Since Friday, Jan. 21, 2017, we have witnessed a horrific attack on not only civil rights, but basic human rights: the re-militarization of the police force, a bold attack on affirmative action, and a reversal of the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (commonly known as D.A.C.A.). Since the election of America’s forty-fifth President, Donald J. Trump, feelings of hopelessness now permeate the psyche of nearly every person of color living in this country.

On Mon., Aug. 28, 2017, President Trump rolled back the Obama Administration’s prohibition on the ability of police departments to purchase and use combative military gear domestically. The ban is a huge disadvantage to communities of color; it allows police departments to deploy battlefield gear in American cities. For example, using militaristic weaponry to control protesters psychologically or physically, even if the protesters are peaceful. It is inhumane.

Joshua Barre Peaceful Protest met with riot gear.

Pres. Trump has been a ferocious defender of white supremacy on the campaign trail, and even more so while occupying the White House. Several states have already chosen to ban the use of race as a determining factor in college admissions: Arizona, California, and Oklahoma to name a few. The Department of Justice, overseen by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose judgment, many perceive questionable, has created a task force to examine the possibility of discrimination against white college applicants receive during the college selection process. The New York Times reported that the civil right’s division is seeking “current lawyers interested in working for a new project on

Trump promised countless times that nothing would happen to the thousands of “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. as children and allowed to stay under the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals or D.A.C.A., living across America. Grievously, the president reneged on that commitment. This is a huge blow to the country, considering this nation purportedly was founded on values and principles of receiving the tired, weary, and politically oppressed.

What will become of the country that allegedly “shines on a hill,” as a beacon for those wondering in an ocean of solitude, sogged from the political oppression they experienced in their home countries?

I see two paths: One that leads to equity, equality, and justice for all, and the other a horrifying repeal of basic civil and human rights, whereby the large white majority will continue to be ill-informed on the oppression their minority neighbors continue to experience. I see a nation where the Conservative media will play their racist propaganda by bewildering and rallying the far-Right, Alt-Right, and white southern Christian fundamentalist into believing that they are taking their country back. In actuality, they are hurting their country, which has been positively influenced by nearly every race, creed, and religion on the planet.